Optimal Mitigation Policies in a Pandemic: Social Distancing and Working from Home

We study an economy’s response to an unexpected epidemic. The spread of the disease can be mitigated by reducing consumption and hours worked in the office. Working from home is subject to learning-by-doing. Private agents’ rational incentives are relatively weak and fatalistic. The planner recognizes infection and congestion externalities and implements front-loaded mitigation. Under our calibration, the planner reduces cumulative fatalities by 48% compared to 24% by private agents, although with a sharper drop in consumption. Our model can replicate key industry and/or occupational-level patterns and explain how large variations in outcomes across regions can stem from small initial differences.

Factors related to psychological impairment and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia

ABSTRACT Objective: to describe the factors related to psychological impairment and quality of life (QoL) of patients with schizophrenia. Method: a cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational study, carried out with 119 schizophrenics. A questionnaire of sociodemographic and clinical variables was applied, plus BPRS-A and QLS-BR scales. Chi-square test and Spearman’s correlation were used, Results: seventy-seven were male and 44 were using typical medications. The “Number of times they were hospitalized” related to “Time of illness” that patients live with schizophrenia showed significance (p=0.266); 91.7% had a severe occupational level (n=109); 34.5% (n=41) had moderate impairment. Conclusion: the greater the degree of psychological impairment, the worse the QoL, this worsening may be related to several factors, as well as disease symptoms.

Company-Level Family Policies: Who Has Access to It and What Are Some of Its Outcomes?

Despite the increase in the number of studies that examine the cross-national variation in the policy configuration that allow a better work–family integration, very few look beyond the national levels. It is also crucial to examine occupational level welfare since companies may restrict or expand the existing national-level regulations, defining the “final availability” workers actually have toward various arrangements. In addition, companies may provide various additional arrangements through occupational policies which are not set out in the national-level agreements that are crucial in addressing reconciliation needs of workers. This chapter examines what types of arrangements are provided at the company level to address work–family demands of workers. It further provides a synthesis of studies that examine both national-level contexts and individual-level characteristics that explain who gets access to company-level family-friendly policies, which is linked to the possible outcomes of these policies.

To what extent do socioeconomic inequalities in SRH reflect inequalities in burden of disease? The HELIUS study

ABSTRACT Background Self-rated health (SRH), an attractive measure for health monitoring, shows persistent inequalities with regard to socioeconomic status (SES). However, knowledge on the extent to which inequalities in SRH reflect inequalities in disease burden is lacking. Methods Data come from the multi-ethnic HEalthy LIfe in an Urban Setting study (Dutch, South-Asian Surinamese, African Surinamese, Ghanaian, Turkish or Moroccan origin, N = 19 379, aged 18–70). SES was defined by educational and occupational level. Disease burden was operationalized as chronic diseases, physical and mental functioning (measured with SF-12) and depressive symptoms (measured with PHQ-9). We applied logistic regression analyses and reported average marginal effects (AME). Results Dutch origin participants with low educational or low occupational level had higher probabilities of reporting fair/poor SRH, compared to the highest levels (AME = 0.20 95% CI: 0.13;0.27; and 0.12 (0.09;0.15), respectively). Associations were attenuated after adjusting for all disease burden indicators, to AME = 0.03 (0.01;0.04) and AME = 0.02 (−0.00;0.04). In all the non-Dutch origin groups, a larger part of the inequalities remained after adjustment. Conclusion Socioeconomic inequalities in SRH are for a large part explained by higher disease burden in lower socioeconomic groups, but less so in those with non-Dutch origin. Future research should examine if our conclusions also hold for trend data on inequalities in SRH.

The Correlation between Family Socioeconomic Status and the Delayed Treatment of Retinoblastoma Patients at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital Surabaya

Introduction: Retinoblastoma is a cancer with the highest incidence in children and the second type of cancer that most often causes death in children in Indonesia. The level of delay in attending treatment for retinoblastoma patients in Dr. Soetomo General Hospital Surabaya is still high because in general the patients come with an advanced stage, they are already in serious condition or with a poor prognosis. Treatment delay from the patients can be caused by the patients that are not feeling disturbed by the disease, not aware of the dangers of the disease, feel afraid, have no cost, the family does not allow them to see the doctor, and the health facilities are unaccessable. One of the factors that influence decision making whether or not someone comes to seek treatment is their socioeconomic status. A high education level will make it easier for a person or society to obtain and understand information to solve health problems that are happening in their families, and then with a high level of occupation and income, people are able to choose health services for themselves. The aim of this research is to analyze the correlation between family socioeconomic status with the delayed treatment for retinoblastoma patients at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital Surabaya.Methods: This research used observational analytic cross-sectional study. This research was conducted with the help of 33 retinoblastoma patients and families of retinoblastoma patients in the Outpatient Unit of the Poli Onkologi Satu Atap (POSA) Mata at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital Surabaya, and was taken by total sampling.Results: The results were obtained from 33 samples, 18.2% of patients came with a good prognosis, and 81.8% of patients came with a poor prognosis. The Fisher’s Exact Test analysis (α = 0.05) was used to determine the correlation between the father’s educational level and the delayed treatment of retinoblastoma patients (p = 0.322), correlation between the mother’s educational level and the delayed treatment of retinoblastoma patients (p = 0.129), correlation between the father’s level of occupation and the delayed treatment of retinoblastoma patients (p = 0.028), correlation between the mother’s occupational level and the delayed treatment of retinoblastoma patients (p = 0.640), correlation between the family income level and the delayed treatment of retinoblastoma patients (p = 0.026).Conclusion: There were significant correlation between father’s occupational level and family income level with the delayed treatment of retinoblastoma patients. Meanwhile there were no significant correlation between father’s educational level, mother’s educational level, and mother’s occupational level with the delayed treatment of retinoblastoma patients.

Alcohol control policies and socioeconomic inequalities in hazardous alcohol consumption: a 22-year cross-sectional study in a Swiss urban population

ObjectiveHarmful use of alcohol represents a large socioeconomic and disease burden and displays a socioeconomic status (SES) gradient. Several alcohol control laws were devised and implemented, but their equity impact remains undetermined.We ascertained if an SES gradient in hazardous alcohol consumption exists in Geneva (Switzerland) and assessed the equity impact of the alcohol control laws implemented during the last two decades.DesignRepeated cross-sectional survey study.SettingWe used data from non-abstinent participants, aged 35–74 years, from the population-based cross-sectional Bus Santé study (n=16 725), between 1993 and 2014.MethodsSES indicators included educational attainment (primary, secondary and tertiary) and occupational level (high, medium and low). We defined four survey periods according to the implemented alcohol control laws and hazardous alcohol consumption (outcome variable) as >30 g/day for men and >20 g/day for women.The Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and Relative Index of Inequality (RII) were used to quantify absolute and relative inequalities, respectively, and were compared between legislative periods.ResultsLower educated men had a higher frequency of hazardous alcohol consumption (RII=1.87 (1.57; 2.22) and SII=0.14 (0.11; 0.17)). Lower educated women had less hazardous consumption ((RII=0.76 (0.60; 0.97)and SII=−0.04 (−0.07;−0.01]). Over time, hazardous alcohol consumption decreased, except in lower educated men.Education-related inequalities were observed in men in all legislative periods and did not vary between them. Similar results were observed using the occupational level as SES indicator. In women, significant inverse SES gradients were observed using educational attainment but not for occupational level.ConclusionsPopulation-wide alcohol control laws did not have a positive equity impact on hazardous alcohol consumption. Targeted interventions to disadvantaged groups may be needed to address the hazardous alcohol consumption inequality gap.

Occupational closure and job quality: The case of occupational licensing in Britain

The notion of job quality has been at the forefront of academic and policy-debates, best crystallized in the pursuit to create more but also better jobs as a route to economic prosperity. Motivated by the need to better understand how occupational-level structures shape job quality, we derive predictions from the occupational closure literature to explore how occupational licensing – the strongest and fastest growing form of closure – shapes job quality in Britain. Using nationally-representative data over several decades, we find that the effects of licensing tend to be confined to jobs in the most stringently-licensed occupations, with such jobs having higher pay, lower job insecurity, greater opportunities for skill-use, and higher continuous learning requirements – relative to jobs in similarly-skilled unlicensed occupations. Of particular concern, however, is the finding that jobs in stringently-licensed occupations are also characterized by significantly lower task discretion and significantly higher job demands. Overall, our study adds a new dimension to job quality debates by highlighting the role of emergent occupational-level institutional structures in shaping job quality, and further, that despite the overall positive effects closure strategies have, they may come at a cost to certain critical intrinsic dimensions of job quality.

Occupational exposure to foreigners and attitudes towards equal opportunities

We examine the relationship between attitudes to foreigners and the share of foreigners at the occupational level. Using a question on equal opportunities for foreigners from the Swiss Household Panel, ordered probit regression models show a negative association between the share of foreigners in one’s occupation and positive attitudes to foreigners: workers seem to react to competition with foreigners. When we add the occupational unemployment rate, objective pressures in the labour market appear as relevant as contact at the occupational level. Further controlling for occupational heterogeneity establishes that both factors—particularly objective pressures—are probably accounted for by sorting on job quality. We also show that the association between the occupational share of foreigners and attitudes decreases for workers with better job prospects. This implies that workers welcome foreigners to overcome labour market shortages.

Förortssvenska i grindvakters öron: Perceptioner av migrationsrelaterad språklig variation bortom inlärarspråk och förortsslang

In Sweden, over the few past decades, a large amount of research has been conducted on new urban youth styles, here called suburban slang. More recently, some researchers have begun to focus on the way young individuals from multilingual suburbs speak in more formal situations, here called suburban Swedish – i.e. Swedish close to standard but with a suburban touch, due to, in particular, phonological features indexing suburb. Among the general public, these two ways of speaking are often lumped together under popular labels such as immigrant Swedish or Rinkeby Swedish. As a result, widespread negative attitudes towards the well-known suburban slang risk “rubbing off” on suburban Swedish. This may cause serious problems for the speakers, e.g. if this occurs in a job interview. This danger of negative evaluation was investigated in a folk-linguistic listener study on gatekeeper perceptions. Ten speech stimuli from young adult speakers (among which two samples each of suburban Swedish and suburban slang) were evaluated by 95 gatekeepers (employment officers, student counselors and teachers). A range of data types was analyzed: attitude scales, variety labeling, assessments of the speakers’ occupational level and linguistic background, as well as group discussion data. Results show, among other things, that suburban-sounding speech (slang as well as suburban Swedish) correlates highly with gatekeepers’ low ratings of the speakers’ occupational level. Moreover, the participating gatekeepers lack adequate terminology to differentiate between these two ways of speaking. This implies that sociolinguistic awareness raising should receive more critical attention within the educational sector, including the training for various professions in the public and private sector.